Recent stories of interest include the following: 1. The News and Observer reports that the state House just passed its version of the budget. The last version that I saw -- admittedly, not the final -- included significant cuts to the court system, and deep cuts to the UNC system. The House budget must now be reconciled with the very different Senate budget before a final bill can be sent to the governor. 2. On a happier note, the News and Observer also has a story about a 47-year-old woman who has just graduated from law school, after more than a few scrapes with the law herself in her younger years. She hopes to be a criminal defense lawyer, and doubtless will be able to relate to her clients' predicaments in a way that most lawyers cannot. 3. South Carolina recently completed a substantial overhaul of its sentencing laws. The general idea was to reduce prison costs by encouraging alternatives to incarceration for less-serious offenders, while ensuring harsh punishments for the most dangerous defendants. Sentencing Law and Policy covers it here. 4. Farther afield, the New York Times reports as follows: New York City agreed on Thursday to pay $9.9 million, the largest personal settlement in its history, to a man who served almost two decades in prison but was released after evidence surfaced that he had been framed for murder by a corrupt detective. 5. As everyone knows, BP has a massive oil spill/leak/disaster on its hands in the Gulf [...]
Faculty Coordinators
